BEHAVIOUR HANDOUT

Walk Breaks for Reactive Dogs

Overview

When I start a Behaviour Modification programme for reactive dogs, I always recommend a break from walks to bring stress levels down before we start training.

Why this is important:

The more times a dog reacts to a trigger, the more ingrained that behaviour will become

We need to put in place a 'circuit breaker' to stop the cycle of reactivity

Stress levels don't have a chance to normalise if we keep reacting on the same walks, unless something changes